Stone Cold Fox

How Emma Stone Single-Handedly Conquered the World

It’s been a big year for Emma Stone, between starring in three big films and making her Broadway debut in Cabaret, the actress had been everywhere. And somehow, miraculously, we’re not tired of her. Stone has somehow cracked the most coveted code in Hollywood: how to make everyone love you. Because Stone hasn’t just conquered one section of fandom, she’s won us all. And, best of all, she seems to do it without trying. So on this, her 26th birthday, we’re taking a look back at how Stone systematically and singe-handedly conquered the world. I, for one, welcome our new redhead overlord.

The Bros: In 2007’s Superbad, an impossibly young-looking Stone proved she could hang with the guys and laid the foundation for her easygoing, down-to-earth reputation.

And in 2009 she was not only hanging with the guys, she was getting a one up on them in Zombieland.

The Feminists: Stone could have stayed there in the “guy’s girl” sweet spot, but then she landed the lead in Easy A, a film that both plays into sexual fantasies about young women (hello, clingy bustiers) and subverts and reclaims them.

The film, both a throwback to The Scarlett Letter and 80s comedies and an accurate take on the ongoing sexual-politics debates, was only the beginning of Stone’s feminist appeal. In 2011 she told Vanity Fair that her Hollywood idols were women who didn’t build their career on sex appeal alone, citing Diane Keaton as a personal role model. And earlier this summer, Stone won hearts and minds by gently but firmly calling out her boyfriendAndrew Garfield for some casual sexism at an event for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. She may not have burned her bra in the public square, but Stone definitely made her point.

The Celebrity-Couple Worshippers: We know you love celebrity couples. Who doesn’t? The cute celebrity-couple nicknames! The public appearances. The red-carpet moments. The engagement rumors. We can’t get enough of these two. Aren’t they the best?

The Theater Geeks: Movie stars get cast on Broadway all the time. But what’s different about Stone landing the role of Sally Bowles in Cabaret is her theater-geek cred. She’s talked about Cabaretbeing a life-long dream, and even revealed her embarrassing past in children’s theater on The Tonight Show.

But it takes more than slapping on a pair of Leia buns to win over the nerd base. Stone got a little more geek cred when she took on the iconic role of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man. But it was this 2012 interview with The Daily Beast where Stone confessed her own geeky tendencies that really sealed the deal.

I was a huge computer nerd. I built Web sites! I would go online on
forums, had a bunch of Internet friends, and would build free Web sites
for people because I was trying to teach myself HTML. I was really
just fucking around the whole time, trying to make frames and
drop-down menus, so if the chance arose I could be a Web site designer.
I wasn’t good at the graphics at all, so I really wasn’t going places.
And I had an online newsletter called Neptune, which was an e-zine for
girls 12 to 18, where I made up the advice column and wrote articles,
because I thought I wanted to be a journalist for a long time—I still
kind of do.

The Rom-Com Addicts: The best rom-com of the last decade is the twenty minutes or so of screen time Stone and Ryan Gosling share in Crazy, Stupid, Love. Stone was so endearing that not even the Internet got upset when she spent so much time with their boyfriend, a very shirtless Gosling. Can these two have a sequel, please?

The Arthouse Film Lovers: It’s possible that there was a small wedge of the population that still wasn’t sold on Stone. I’m talking about the hard-to-please arthouse crowd. But after her strung-out, sullen-yet-sweet turn in Birdman, not even the snobbiest filmgoer can ignore her charm.

She is so inspiring to me, and I am so grateful that she exists in the
world, as someone who is authentic and who has not bent to fit any
idea of what a woman should be like in that kind of position. And she
is so talented. I am just so happy that she is around for women
everywhere. It’s just fantastic.